US prosecutors indicted a key figure in the OneCoin cryptocurrency pyramid scheme on money laundering charges, wire fraud and securities fraud, as per a recently unsealed complaint.
As per court records, Karl Sebastian Greenwood was indicted in February 2018. OneCoin is now a new scandalous venture trick that was the most prominent of a large number of digital currency-based pyramid schemes to emerge in the last 5 years. Greenwood was captured in November that year, as indicated by a report by the Bangkok Post.
The prosecution accuses Greenwood for contriving to swindle would-be financial specialists into purchasing OneCoin packages, which promoters guaranteed could then be utilized to “mine” OneCoins. Likewise with many pyramid schemes, the objective of members was to sell those packages and carry new members into the plan.
As per the court reports, such endeavours acquired “over $1 billion of investors funds” between 2014 and January 2018.
As federal court wrote –“…GREENWOOD, and others working on his behalf, made and caused to be made false statements and misrepresentations soliciting individuals throughout the world, including in the Southern District of New York, to invest in ‘OneCoin’ a purported cryptocurrency, and instructed individuals to transmit investment funds to OneCoin depository accounts in order to purchase OneCoin packages, thereby causing individuals to send interstate and international wires representing their OneCoin investments, and resulting in the receipt of over $1 billion of investor funds into OneCoin[-]related bank accounts.”
Greenwood’s pretrial meeting, as announced by BehindMLM.com, is scheduled for June 3.
Different figures, including instigators Konstantin Ignatov and Ruja Ignatova, have been indicted by the US authorities, however Ignatova – the alleged “Cryptoqueen” stays on the loose. Ignatov was captured in March 2018 at the hour of the indictment.
Geoffrey S. Berman, the Manhattan US Attorney, said at the time, “As alleged, these defendants created a multibillion-dollar ‘cryptocurrency’ company based completely on lies and deceit. They promised big returns and minimal risk, but, as alleged, this business was a pyramid scheme based on smoke and mirrors more than zeroes and ones.”
[image credit : Sophos]
